The two senators from Vermont are likely the most anti-Israel in the Senate / Photo credit: Archive, burlingtonfreepress.com

In a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry dated Feb. 17, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and ten House members, including Jim McDermott (D-WA), Hank Johnson (D-GA), Sam Farr (D-CA) and Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), requested information on the application of the Leahy Law regarding Israel and Egypt, Politico reported Tuesday.

The Leahy Law, or the Leahy amendment, named after its principal sponsor, Senator Leahy, prohibits the State and Defense Departments to provide military assistance to foreign military “units” that violate human rights with impunity.

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To implement this law, US embassies, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, and the appropriate regional bureau of the US Department of State must vet potential recipients of security assistance. If a unit is credibly implicated in a serious abuse of human rights, US assistance must be denied until the government in question takes effective steps to bring the responsible persons within the unit to justice. Press reports have indicated so far that security forces in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Nigeria, Turkey, Indonesia, and Pakistan have been denied assistance under the Leahy Law.

The Leahy letter notes that “according to information we have received, the manner in which US military assistance has been provided to Israel and Egypt, since the Camp David Accords, including the delivery of assistance at the military service level, has created a unique situation that has hindered implementation of normal mechanisms for monitoring the use of such assistance.”

Regarding Israel, specifically, the letter says: “Amnesty International and other human rights organizations have reported what may be extrajudicial killings by the Israeli military and police of Fadi Alloun, Saad Al-Atrash, Hadeel Hashlamoun, and Mutaz Ewisa. There are reports of the use of torture in the cases of Wasim Marouf and Ahmed Mansara.”

“In light of these reports we request that you act promptly to determine their credibility and whether they trigger the Leahy Law and, if so, take appropriate action called for under the law,” the letter concludes.

Fadi Alloun stabbed a 15-year-old in Jerusalem in early October, 2015, moderately wounding him. The attacker fled and was killed by police fire after they noticed the knife in his hand.

Saad Al-Atrash was killed by soldiers in late October, 2015, after he had attacked them with a knife near a pedestrian checkpoint down the street from the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron.

Hadeel Hashlamoun was shot after attempting to stab an Israeli soldier at an IDF check point in Hebron in September, 2015.

Despite his professed friendship with the late Israeli prime minister Yizthak Rabin, Patrick Leahy is possibly the most vehemently anti-Israeli Senator, rivaled only by his junior Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. In 2011, Leahy demanded that US military assistance be withheld from the Israeli navy’s special force Shayetet 13 unit, the infantry’s special force Duvdevan unit and the Air Force’s special force Shaldag unit, for their involvement, among other things, in the Mavi Marmara incident. According to Ha’aretz at the time, Leahy made his move “after he was approached by voters in his home state of Vermont” and that pro-Palestinian rallies had been held outside his office.

The main victim of the Leahy hoopla will not be the US military assistance to Israel, which will be raised on schedule from three to four billion dollars annually, even under the current administration. The victim is most likely to be the IDF medic who shot a terrorist in Hebron while the latter was on the ground. The young soldier’s case is being deliberated this week, and the military court on Tuesday appeared unconvinced by the prosecution’s case on its face. However, a nudge to the military judges that an acquittal would not play well in Washington DC while the media are focusing on the Leahy gang’s letter could result in a more severe sentence.

Before the US investigates anyone on human rights violations. They need to get there own crap together. Failing to provide proper health care for its veterns. Placing the rights of refugees and other non residents above the rights of its own people. Homeless rate well above what it should be and more. How about the unlawful execution and arrest of US citizens by a foreign body on US soil. “BLM” All over land. Israel is less in human rights violations than the US will ever be

You assert "Patrick Leahy is possibly the most vehemently anti-Israeli Senator, rivaled only by his junior Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders." BUT OFF ZERO EVIDENCE OF SANDERS BEING WHAT YOU ASSERT. OUTRAGEOS! In fdact the entire aricle is a sin of asserions Dated March 30 you reference a letter written a month and a half ago on February 17 and from a simple reequest for information come up with a Wacky statemet in which you alone conclude "The two senators from Vermont are likely the most anti-Israel in the Senate". Wacky understaes what you call journalistic reporftng.

Why don't they investigate the U.S. Government's slaughter of the civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki? or the indiscriminate murder of Native American men, women, and children? Why not look into the so-called "Palestinian Authority" for the public hangings, without trial, of any Arab that criticizes them? What hypocrites these anti-Semite are!

So the law in the case of the IDF medic will be applied based on politics and not the facts in the case. It appears that the Israeli Justice System is corrupt. The medic should be receiving a medal. I wish people like Leahy could be forced to live along the border for a few months and observe first hand what the Israeli's are up against.

Step one, define human rights. Step two, apply these definitions to all countries including Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, Iraq et al. If you have a different standard for Israel you're probably an anti-Semite. Not surprising, most of the signers are left wing Democrats.

How come we don't hear about such abuses by Palestinians who receive aid from us. What about other Arab/muslim countries? Always the double standard applied to Israel. The ten f**ks who signed that letter are clearly anti-Semitic morons, even the self-loathing Jew Sanders. Of**ku must love those 10 guys.

Yo Larry, I 'll bet you don't scream so loud when the leftist mouthpieces who push the brain dead leftist agenda come up with bogus, biased anti-conservative "journalism". Sanders is a self-loathing Jew pushing an agenda no intelligent person in America wants. He is an unrequited hippie from the 60's. He could have sold his program back then, but he is no longer relevant. The left has long since worn out its welcome.

Richard Charron Even more surprising is that American Jews heavily contributed to Obama and helped vote that muslim loving anti-Israel fraud into the WH twice. Worse than that, the same ones support the anti-Semite Shrillary. They also support allowing tens of thousands of Muslim anti-Semites to migrate here because it is who we are to invite our murderers into our home according to Obama.

It's absolutely ASTOUNDING that Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and ten House members, including Jim McDermott (D-WA), Hank Johnson (D-GA), Sam Farr (D-CA) and Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) want to hold Israel to a standard beyond which NO other nation (including the US) is held.
Where are the investigations when the Muslim nations and other nations REGULARLY violate citizens rights, and those citizens are not even terrorists?
Sen. Leahy needs to get his OWN house (sorry – Senate) in order before he opens his mouth about the only democracy in the Middle East, ESPECIALLY one that bends over backwards to protect civilians (even then they are engaged in helping terrorists).
Sen. Leahy – SHAME ON YOU!!!!

Please forgive them because they have dementia and do not know what they are doing. I do not understand why Israel is the only country expected to wipe the enemies butt. Oh sorry. The US is expected to do that as well. Most of us in this country would like to round up these parasites and put them in Gitmo until they die of old age or sympathy for the enemy. Which ever comes first.

Science Project : You start with a cage containing four monkeys, and inside the cage you hang a banana on a string, and then you place a set of stairs under the banana. Before long a monkey will go to the stairs and climb toward the banana. You then spray ALL the monkeys with cold water.

After a while, another monkey makes an attempt. As soon as he touches the stairs, you spray ALL the monkeys with cold water.

Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it

Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new monkey. The new monkey sees the banana and attempts to climb the stairs. To his shock, ALL of the other monkeys beat the crap out of him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original four monkeys, replacing it with a new monkey. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment – with enthusiasm — because he is now part of the "team."

Then, replace a third original monkey with a new monkey, followed by the fourth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked.

Now, the monkeys that are beating him up have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs. Neither do they know why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey. Having replaced all of the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys will have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, not one of the monkeys will try to climb the stairway for the banana.

Why, you ask? Because in their minds, that is the way it has always been!

This is how today's House and Senate operates, and this is why, from time to time, ALL of the monkeys need to be REPLACED AT THE SAME TIME!

This lesson is by no means meant to disrespect monkeys, only the APES in congress.

Alan Kardon Of course we want to see all who hate Israel & Jews dis-empowered. The issue of Anti-Semitic self-hating Jews is very different, but just as dangerous to Israel and Jews everywhere. Sanders is one rotten egg in America's Jewish Community. He is using a divide and conquer approach.